There’s trouble at t’mill for Strictly Come Dancing pro-dancer Kristina Rihanoff as it’s been reported that she recently retweeted a message from one of her Twitter followers that read, “I’m watching #scd2013 for three reasons @KRihanoff @susannareid100 and mainly to watch Brucie do a ‘Tommy Cooper’.”

The tweet of course referred the fact that legendary comedian Tommy Cooper died onstage while performing at Her Majesty’s variety show in April 1984. His tragic death was broadcast on live TV as initially, everybody thought the dramatic collapse was part of Cooper’s act…

However, the Daily Star Sunday reports, “By retweeting the message, Kristina shared the sick joke with her 56,000 Twitter followers.”

A show source told the paper, “This won’t go down well at all. Brucie is Strictly royalty so he’s not someone you want to upset.

“It was an incredibly foolish thing to do, and Kristina should know better.”

Of 85 year old Sir Bruce, the insider added, “He hates it when people make references to his age.

“He feels that if he’s happy to continue, people should leave him to it.

“If he hears about Kristina sharing a joke about him dying on TV, he won’t be happy at all.”

Meanwhile, another TV source said, “The BBC will take this seriously.

“Brucie is one of their top names, so to have a Strictly star publicly joking about him dying is not going to go down well.

“There’s a chance she even won’t be asked back next year over this.”

However, a Strictly spokeswoman added, “The reference was made within a tweet that also contained a compliment about Kristina.

“To retweet was a genuine error, and she in no way agrees with the comment.”

No doubt we’ll hear more about that soon, but it’s also been reported today that EastEnders star Shane Richie – who was spotted filming scenes in a graveyard for the BBC soap yesterday – has revealed that if ever Sir Bruce does retire, he’d like his job!

Lynn is an editor and writer here at Unreality TV and is a trained psychotherapist and the author of two books. She's addicted to soaps, period drama and reality TV shows such as X Factor, Big Brother, BGT and I'm A Celeb.